Customer Reviews

Broken Arrow

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The term "grunge" has often been associated with Neil, and no one epitomizes the term better than him. Broken Arrow is rock at its slow, crawling, best. To understand why so many people virtually worship this guy's music, especially when he melds with Crazy Horse, you need to let yourself enter his music as if you were entering a dark and turgid river, and then just let it take you on a journey. If you try to analyze this album, you'll never figure it out.

Broken Arrow is all about deep longing, and struggling for some light in a dark world. The first three tracks on the album create a trance-like mood that can evoke a mystic state in the listener. There is a sense of the divine underlying the best music, from Beethoven, to Mahler to Robert Simpson. It's there in the jams of the Dead, Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa and Eric Clapton in his heroin days. If you let yourself go into this album, you will sense the mystic as strongly as in other great Neil and Crazy Horse jams (Powderfinger, Cortez the Killer, Change Your Mind, Love and Only Love, Down by the River, Last Dance, etc.).

In "Big Time," every pluck of Neil's guitar is a quest for something beautiful that has been lost, or a dream that is fading-an recurring Neil Young image. About six minutes into the song there's a classic Neil Young and Crazy epiphany that explodes with beauty.

"Loose Change" starts out optimistically, but becomes is a quest for something that is never found. It's like a cry for the sun during a horribly dark and gloomy day and, no matter how powerful the cry, the sun never seems to break through. About half way through the song, it's as if Neil and Crazy Horse get stuck in the mud, and the river just goes round and round the same notes. I've read somewhere that this part of the song was a sort of an aural wake for David Briggs, a long time collaborator and friend of Neil's.

"Slip Away" makes me thing of the great jams of the seventies (I was only a kid then) that are missing in the instant-gratification I-Pod stuffing music of today. Almost symphonic in scale, it's long, abstract, and has moments of true profundity.

Some folks have criticized the rest of the songs as throwaways, but they're not. The dark river runs through each of them and, although they seem lighter and more tuneful, oddly transcendent images of old souls flying through darkness ("Scattered) and not being asleep when he's lying down ("This Town") abound.

The last song on the album, "Baby What You Want From Me", sounds like a bootleg recorded from the back of a small but noisy bar while Neil and Crazy Horse were playing. The band is distant and you hear a lot of the clatter of drinks clinking. There's one part where someone in the audience actually says, "Where's the door?" When listening to this song with my friends, we'd wait for that line to come. Somehow it fits in with the song and finishes the album with a strong sense of otherworldliness.

Broken Arrow is Neil and Crazy Horse at their slow, dark, turgid best. It's not for surface dwellers, but once you get caught up in its powerful undercurrents, you will never be able to leave.

Spiderant.

I want to say a word or two in defense of this album, which people seem to be describing as some sort of throwaway. Not true. The instrumentals on "Broken Arrow" are as inspired as any Neil Young and Crazy Horse have dished out, and the musical accompaniments to "Loose Change" and "Slips Away" in particular are downright hypnotic in places. Yes, some of the songs are long -- is this a problem? When Neil wants to sprawl, he sprawls; he doesn't limit himself to turning out one neatly-wrapped radio cut after another, and that's one more reason to respect him. And when the songs extend on this album it's always to a mezmerizing rather than tedious effect. I suppose we could have done without the cut "This Town," but so what? It's hard to think of a more inane tune than "There's a World," but that song hardly detracts from the glory of "Harvest." If there is a problem with "Broken Arrow," it seems to lie more with the production than with conception or performance. The vocals for many of the songs are strangely washed-out, as if Neil (and Crazy Horse too, for that matter) were standing a foot or so from the mike. This is disappointing, since the lyrics, though not his best, are generally pretty damn good. As for "Baby What You Want Me to Do?" it's live, it's uncharacteristic, it's lower than low-fi, but the obvious intent is to make you feel you're listening from the back of a crowded bar--an interesting idea, and I think it works pretty well. Finally, "Music Arcade" has got to be one of Neil's most perfect accoustic pieces ever, and it alone nearly justifies the price of the album.

This is actually my favorite Neil Young album (which may say something about me). I love it not for its quantity of great songs or tracks, but for its incredible depth and mystery. The image of American Indians on the cover and the title--a broken arrow, representing peace--indicates an appreciation of history and the fact that human thought and emotion over the ages is all tied together.

These ideas, of course, are recurring themes in Neil Young's work (overcoming generation gaps, imagining life in other times and places, and working through complex and difficult memories). It is music for lonely people, lost souls, or those searching for meaning in a dark world. At certain times, it is almost eerie, as though he is channeling spiritual messages.

Perhaps the final song, his version of "Baby What You Want Me to Do" could really be interpreted in a spiritual way. It could mean that his muse is a higher power that was telling him what to do when writing and performing the music (like the double-meaning of George Harrison's unintentional channeling of "My Sweet Lord...He's So Fine.") Young might have also chosen to do a cover of "Baby..." because the words of being in a state of flux and turmoil echo the lyrics of other tracks such as "Scattered (Let's Think About Livin')."

It is not an album to be listened to at a party or with commotion. Just as one wouldn't want to meditate or read under those circumstances, one probably shouldn't try to connect with this kind of music with distractions. As he says in "Music Arcade" : "Yeah, I'm talking 'bout getting down...Take it easy...There's no one around..."

A lot of reviewers seem to be pointing out that this album seems uneven or half-baked, and, while it is definitely true that Neil didn't seem to put as much effort into making this album as he has some of his others, and the lyrics aren't the most drawn-out are well-developed that he has ever written; but, you must remember: this IS a Crazy Horse album - what do you expect? The beauty (nay; let us say, the ragged glory) of the Crazy Horse albums lies not in their songwriting, nor in their production, but in their sheer glee and fun in jamming. It's music that you can tell Neil and the band had fun making. It's just good ol' rock 'n' roll. If you are into Neil's mellower, more produced side (Harvest, Comes A Time, Harvest Moon) with the denser lyrics and more soothing melodies, then this album might not be your cup of meat (although it does contain one beautiful, excellent acoustic number, Music Arcade.) If you are into the long Crazy Horse jams on such as albums as Everybody Know This Is Nowhere, Zuma, and Ragged Glory, however, then this will be right up your alley. The first three songs are the highlights of the record - particularly Loose Change, which contains an absolutely pulverizing 4+ minute jam to close out the tune, featuring some crushing guitar work from Neil and devastating rhythm support from Poncho Sampedro. That said, the album does have some flaws, and there are some things that could have made it better. Aside from the excellent first three songs (and the acoustic Music Arcade), the rest of the album is more or less filler. Seeing as the album has only 8 tracks and a 40-odd minute running time in a decade when Neil had been filling his albums to the brim (tracks and running time), he seems to have deliberately left this album in its seemingly half-finished state. One may never know the reason for this (certainly one would not expect Neil, unlike most artists, of trying to follow up on his commercial hot streak), but that is Neil Young, after all: unpredictable, iconoclastic, and perverse to the extreme. Also, Neil's vocals are buried rather deep in the mix, and can be hard to make out at times. This is really a minor complaint, however, since the lyrics are not here the focus of the disc. My reccommendation: since this is not Neil's best album, although it is quite good and enjoyable, I reccommend, if you are a fan of the Crazy Horse side of Neil, getting some of their other, better albums first (Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Ragged Glory, Sleeps With Angels), and then getting this, if you want more.

Neil Young put out more albums collectively with Crazy Horse than with anyone else in the nineties. For a while, us younger fans were unaware that Young was associated with anyone else. Although this relationship began in 1969, and has always been a power factory... it was in the nineties where they really harnessed the team, and pumped out the rawest rock and roll of their respective careers. This started in '90 with Ragged Glory, continued with live albums like Weld, and futher touched into the grunge/alternative spike with 94's Sleeps With Angels. After a break in 95 for Youngs most Alternative effort, Mirror Ball, recorded with Pearl Jam in place of the Horse, the team got back together to record BROKEN ARROW. A dive bar rock album, with much grungy-yet-smooth guitar jams. In my ears, one of the bands most perfect albums.
This one may never go down as a classic, or even as one of Neil Youngs most relevant discs. It in no way takes itself seriously, and was never a huge hitter for Young. However, ten years later, with Youngs Living With War currently on the shelves, some disgruntled fans may need to go back a few years to hear what Neil Young sounds like, when he doesn't have very much to say... just jammin in the garage on some nasty sounding shredders, and cool, serene atmospheres.
The first three tracks kick. Each one, no less than eight minutes long. The distortion is up in the good old Neil/Horse fashion. BIG TIME and LOOSE CHANGE being more uppaced, and SLIP AWAY being a dream like sequence, but with just as much crunch and distortion.
The latter half contains a few songs that are just a good time. I saw the tour for this back in '96, and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen. The band were in a groove that summer, and were really showing off the skills. I love the free style intro to THIS TOWN, I love the group effort of CHANGING HIGHWAYS, hell I even like the soft spoken MUSIC ARCADE. This whole thing is great. The final track is a bootleg style cover of an old Jimmy Reed tune, BABY WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO. It's the icing on the cake for me. A real bar rocker, with the people in the background, and glasses clinking etc. Very cool.

After recording an album with Crazy Horse devotees, Pearl Jam, Neil Young brings back the real deal on Broken Arrow. The album isn't made up so much of songs as loose jams. This isn't a bad thing as that's what Crazy Horse does best, jam. There are a couple of instrumentals, notably "Loose Change", that show off the brilliant musicianship of the group. Amid all the guitars, is one of Mr. Young's best acoustic numbers of the 90's, "Music Arcade". One complaint of Broken Arrow is that the vocals are low down in the mix and makes for a difficult listen in spots.

It took me a few years to get this album, but once I did I was glad. It's not far off from most albums he released in the 90's. Any fan of "Freedom", "Sleeps With Angels", or "Mirror Ball" should get into it easily. The majority of the songs are long jams, and "Neil" and "Crazy Horse" rock as expected. "Music Arcade" is the only real softy, and would fit well on "Silver And Gold". Overall, casual fans might look elsewhere, but true "Neil Young" fans should like this "Big Time". I actually heard that song on the radio today.

i have loved this album since the first time i put it on my turntable...every song sounded so fresh and new to me then, it was like the first time i heard "sleeps with angels." i don't understand the people who say it's "halfhearted," "sloppy", and that only a few of the songs are worth listening to. i mean, what's wrong with "this town"? it's a cool song dammit!! this is one of the best from neil and the horse, and the summer tour of '96 that followed this album was extraordinary.

Rock stars have a well known dilemma, whether to repeat the things that brought them success, that fans tend to want more of, and that they're usually good at but can lead to a rut, or to try new things. Neil Young does both in spades, moving between his old styles and all sorts of new experiments. This album falls more into the repeat camp, which is fine with me. He's good at the grunge guitar jams and the other Crazy Horse stuff, and I want more of it.

Such dilemmas and other issues of growing older in the music business may have been on Young's mind as he was turning 50. The chorus of the first song, "Big Time," is "I'm still livin' the dream we had / For me it's not over." It begins with his trip from Ontario to LA to join the big-time music scene there. The album title, Broken Arrow, is the title of one of his early songs for Buffalo Springfield (see here), an experimental piece that deals with stardom and some personal imagery that seems to allude to dreams already lost. "Could you tell that the empty-quivered, / Brown-skinned Indian on the banks / That were crowded and narrow, / Held a broken arrow?" Years later, Young half-explained, "It's an image of being very scared and mixed up. The broken arrow is an Indian sign of peace after losing a war. A broken arrow usually means that somebody has lost a lot." It's an image that he lives with, on his ranch named Broken Arrow. It's hard to say exactly what either song is getting at, but in "Big Time" he speaks of "a gold mine," "the enemy inside of me," "that youthful fountain."

"Loose Change" seems to work in a similar vein, speaking of roads in all directions:

"Too many distractions
Got to get back home
Get into something solid
Get out of the zone
Some roads bring renewal
Some roads hide and wait
Some roads promise everything
And steal your fuel away."

From there, there's more talk of highways, thinking about living, and the last studio cut (there's a live track tacked on) ends, "I really didn't mean to stay / As long as I have / So I'll be movin' on." Hard to say how much we should read into such things.

Though these cuts have much of the sound of some of his early work, they don't have the same intensity or juice of the best of it, not on the angry, spooky or any other side. And, what probably follows by some musical logic, they seem to me to lack some of the musical edge that some of his best had back when, to be less inspired in their jams, tunes, rambles and so on. No surprise there, as when he made this album Young (it appears) was living a more settled and happier life, relatively speaking, with different challenges. And not too much of a disappointment, because the songs are still very good, have good energy and vibe. I love his overall sound on this album.

The first three tracks each include guitar jams, so they average over eight minutes each. The longest, and most repetitious, is on "Loose Change." If you listen closely, following the shadings of the churning along, it works pretty well, otherwise it can seem tedious. I particularly like "Slip Away," which combines the grungy guitar haze with a dreamy, wistful vocal haze.

"Changing Highways" has some of that country vibe. Catchy, nice beat. Good guitar groove on "Scattered." "This Town" is a chugging trifle, enjoyable enough, with short non-fuzzed guitar solos. "Music Arcade" is Young by himself whispering a simple tune and playing an acoustic guitar. He's good at that, though it's very redundant.

I especially like the last track, an 8-minute live recording of Jimmy Reed's blues "Baby, What You Want Me to Do." Taken from a series of little live shows at bars on the West Coast, this has the basics of a good performance: a great groove, a fine song, and momentum. Even though it is eight minutes long, and has a laid back pace, nothing drags or sags. It has maybe too much of a good thing in the ambiance of the bar, since it appears (by design, probably) to have been recorded from someone's lap in the audience. That makes the chatter and bottle clinking as distinct as the music, which is rather distant, but it still works.

If you like LPs, this one might be worth getting in that format, if you can find it. It has an extra song. And you can actually read the liner notes, which require a microscope for the CD version.

A strong four stars.

Underrated album with superb long rockers followed by shorter, haunting songs. The only misstep is the last track, a lethargic live version of Baby What You Want Me To Do that goes on too long. The ragged production gives the songs a trippy, hallucinatory quality. The strength of the songs gives the album an impressive consistency and mood. Big Time, Slips Away, Scattered, and Music Arcade are especially memorable. Great album for driving, kicking back, parties or just to revel in the magic of Neil Young's musical spirit. Achieves a perfect balance between the melancholy and the thunderous.